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(No Model.)

G. L. SANFORD.

METHOD OF ARRANGING CARTRIDGE SHELLS. No. 247,419. Patented Sept. 20,1881.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE L. SANFORD, NEW HAVEN, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO THE WINCHESTER REPEATING ARMS COMPANY, OF SAME PLACE.

METHOD OF ARRANGING CARTRIDGE-SHELLS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 247,419, dated September 20, 1881.

' Application filed Jn1y14, 1881. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, GEORGE L. SANFORD, of New Haven, in the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented a new Improvement in Devices for Arranging Cartridge-Shells for Loading and for other purposes; and I do hereby declare the following, when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings and the letters of reference marked thereon, to be a full, clear, and exact description of the same, and which said drawings constitute part of this specification, and represent, in-

Figure 1, a perspective view; Fig. 2-, transverse section, illustrating the operation.

This invention relates to a device for arranging cartridge-shells so that they may be readily set upon their heads with the mouth upward. Preparatory to loading cartridge-shells it is necessary that they should be set with their months up. This isusually done by operatives by hand, they setting theshells one at a time upon their heads or handling them singly. This requires so much time that it is an expensive part of the work.

The object of this invention is to arrange them in the required position and dispense with and save a large proportion of labor now required.

To this end my invention consists in a plate having numerous pins or studs set vertically thereon, all substantially the same height, and

'of somewhat less diameter than the interior of the cartridge, so that the operative may throw a mass of shells onto the upwardly-projectin g studs, and those shells which come mouth downward or are inclined mouth downward will, by slight agitation, find their way onto the pins. Then, when the pins are thus covered, or most of them, the operator places a thin plate on the heads, and, taking the whole to the table where the loading is to be performed, inverts the whole, bringing the stud-plate at the top, then raises the stud-plate from the shells, leaving them all standing mouth up, ready for future operation, as more fully hereinafter described.

A represents the stud plate or base, which maybe of any desirable size. On this plate are numerous series of studs, a, all extending vertically from the plate, of less diameter than the interior of the shells, preferably rounded at the tip and preferably distant from each other less than the diameter of the shells.

The plate is placed in a convenient position, with the studs upward, so that the operator can throw onto them a mass of shells; then, by disturbing the mass, as by brushing off the surplus of shells, the shells are caused to fall mouth downward upon the studs, or at least nearly all of them. They cannot go between the studs, either head or mouth downward, because of the lack of room for them so to do. The surplus is brushed off, and the operator then lays a thin plate upon the heads of the shells, as seen at d in broken lines; then taking the stud-plate or shell-holde:, with the covering-plate d, removes them to the work-table, inverts the whole, so as to bring the thin covering-plate onto the table, then withdraws that thin plate, so that the heads of the shells come directly onto the work-table, then lifts the stud plate or holder from the shells, and the shells which have been thus arranged are left standing in their proper position-that is, mouth upward on the work-table-to beloadcd,or whatevermay be required to be done with or to them.

While I have described myinvention as applicable to the arrangement of shells for loading purposes, it will be readily understood that So it may be used for the arrangementof shells for other purposes, or may be for the arrangementof shells or similar articles for other purposes.

By this arrangement a single operator may arrange many shells at a single operatiomand in practice the work is so much more rapidly done than heretofore that the single operator readily does the work of at least four persons by the old method.

I claim- The herein-described method of arranging shells and like articles, consisting in the employment of a plate with several series of studs arranged to project vertically therefrom, the 5 shells placed thereon in a mass, and so that they will fall upon the studs the open end downward, then placing a thin plate upon the shells so arranged, whereby the plates and shells may be inverted upon a table and the I00 plates removed, leaving the shells on the table mouth upward, substantially as and for the purpose described.

GEORGE L. SANFORD.

Witnesses:

DANIEL H. VEAEER, JAMES N. KIMBALL. 

